E-commerce has grown in importance, particularly to software vendors. Online software sales have escalated. Purchasing of software over the worldwide Web provides purchasers with the convenience not only of buying software online but also of installing the software without the use of diskettes or optical disks.
While online stores that sell software are well known, they have drawbacks. For example, when a customer accesses an online store, the customer can be overwhelmed by the number of software applications available for purchase. This can prevent the customer from locating and purchasing the applications that are most interesting or applicable to the customer or his/her enterprise. Another drawback is that more than one customer from an enterprise may need to buy applications. This can result in a very large number of accounts for differing members of a single enterprise. This can be problematic both to the enterprise buying the applications and to the seller wishing to collect demographic data on their customers. Another drawback is that online stores allow any application to be purchased and/or licensed and downloaded by a requesting enterprise customer, without regard to the rules of the enterprise of which the user is a member. Yet another drawback is that the majority of application stores are focused on a consumer-market model. Under this model, software is purchased directly by enterprise users using discretionary funds. Popular applications are typically entertainment, ringtones and themes. There is little or no regulation or supervision for such purchases by the enterprise. Yet another drawback is that there are few enterprise focused marketplace solutions. The generally accepted business/delivery model to connect open platform developers to enterprise customers is largely undefined. Unlike other software customers, discretionary purchases are not the primary purchase of enterprise customers. Enterprise customers focus spending on productivity enhancing applications and those targeted for specific verticals. Enterprise customers further desire to purchase applications in bulk rather than have each employee expense them. Yet another drawback is that, when a customer requests information technology (“IT”) approval to download a new application, many enterprises have a complex application approval process that is not policy-based or centrally coordinated. Yet another drawback for the vendor is that enterprise vendors are premised on the client-server model where licensing is controlled by the vendor on the server component of the model. Due to piracy and other licensing violations, this can result in many free applications being employed, with a concomitant loss in revenue and transaction fees.